Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Born in Ireland, Peter Blood served in the Dutch and French navies, spent two years in a Spanish prison, and is now enjoying the life of a doctor in the southwest of England. Blood is skeptical of the rebellion raised by the Duke of Monmouth against King James II, but when Jeremiah Pitt begs him to come to the aid of the injured Lord Gildoy, who has been implicated in the rebellion, he accedes. As a result, Blood is arrested for treason along with Pitt and the nobleman whose life he saved.
Gildoy subsequently buys his freedom, but Blood and Pitt are found guilty by the famous Lord Jeffreys. Before they can be executed, however, the British Secretary of State orders that 1,000 of the captured rebels be transported to the West Indies as slaves. Blood and Pitt are dispatched to Bridgetown, on the island of Barbados, where they are bought by the cruel Colonel Bishop of the militia to work on his sugar cane plantation. Bishop discovers, however, that it is more profitable to allow Blood to deal with the evils of the island's aristocracy. Due to her status, Blood meets Arabella Bishop, the Colonel's pretty niece.
When the Spanish ship Cinco Llagas attacks Bridgetown, Bishop's troops are unprepared and are defeated, but the attack offers Blood an opportunity. As the Spaniards celebrate their victory on land, Blood, Pitt and a handful of other slaves dominate the ship's remaining crew. They also take his captain, Don Diego de Espinosa y Valdez, a prisoner on his return and confiscate the ransom that the Spaniards have collected. Blood's men destroy the rest of the Spanish ships with cannons before they can reach the ship, but their greatest delight comes when Bishop himself rows in the hope of recovering the ransom. Forced to swim ashore as the ship recedes, the enraged colonel becomes Blood's nemesis.
Blood agrees to free Don Diego on the Dutch island of Curaçao, but the crafty Spanish directs them to a Spanish colony on the island of Hispaniola. Blood avoids the trap, but Don Diego dies of fear of his hands, which earns him enmity from the brother of the Spanish captain, Don Miguel de Espinosa y Valdez, admiral of the Spanish fleet in the Caribbean. The blood now joins the many buccaneers of Tortuga Island who operate under the protection of the French governor of the island. He knows that joining these pirates will curse him in the eyes of Bishop's niece, but he has little choice. The only outward sign of Blood's esteem for her is to rename her ship, Arabella.
Blood continues to thwart Bishop and Don Miguel, foiling the latter in a raid on the Venezuelan port of Maracaibo. Blood has become so notorious that the British government decides to enlist him in its own cause by forgiving him, giving the task to Lord Julian Wade. Wade's ship is attacked by Don Miguel, and he is captured, along with Arabella Bishop, who travels on the same ship. Blood saves them both and accepts Wade's offer, but Arabella's misunderstanding of his character and actions throws him into despair. He also realizes that accepting the pardon will make him fall into the clutches of Colonel Bishop, now vice-governor of Jamaica. Moreover, Blood's love for Arabella earns him enmity from Wade, who has fallen in love with the young woman himself. Not wanting to place himself in the power of these men, Blood rejects his forgiveness and escapes.
When France declared war on Spain in 1688, Blood was approached by the French governor of Hispaniola with a commission. He only accepts the offer to find that his new masters intend to launch a reckless attack on the Spanish colonial city of Cartagena. Thanks to Blood, the attack succeeds, but the leader of the expedition, the perfidious Baron de Rivarol, leaves with the Spanish treasure.
While chasing from Rivarol, the Arabella encounters British lifeboats off Jamaica, and Blood learns ...
